Satharian Sects I: History
While Imperial Lord's work is great, I like my villains to be more tragic, even misunderstood. Pondering about the sathar, the mention of clans in Face of the Enemy just didn't sit right with me. Clans are a yazirian trait. Looking for a replacement I stumbled upon "sects" and remembered the amoral s'sessu. That led me down the following path.
-vmnjn
Satharian History
I. Genesis
The future bane of the Frontier and so many other species, evolved on a pleasant world orbiting a typical G sequence star. Moonless and with stable tectonics, their birthplace was pretty much a global wetland. Only an occasional line of hills breaking up the seemingly endless flat calm seas of aquatic flora. The world's fauna had not even passed the invertebrate stage when the "proto-satha" started tickling sapient's ribs, so to speak. Proto-satha tribes developed and began following the migrations of "great worms." Feeding on the deep and tender roots their stately passage exposed, and on their carcasses when they died.
II. Paradise
This became a symbiotic relationship between the proto-satha and great worms. Who were developing their own sapience too. The tribes guided and cared for the great worms who, in turn, provided everything they needed. Centuries turned into millennia and, in time, the proto-satha were not only following the great worms, but even living on top of them. Festivals occurring wherever tribes crossed paths.
Life was good, and it would not last...
III. Lost
In a nearby system another species had found its way to sapience. A reptilian race which had clawed its way to civilization and beyond their world. Unlocking the mysteries of FTL, they reached to other stars. The first sapient race they encountered was the proto-satha. They saw the chatty worms as primitives, needing to be taught "civilized" ways. Before long this turned into land grabs and outright slavery. Mines and factories quickly followed, fouling the waters and skies. Much of the world's once plentiful flora and fauna were driven to extinction. Including the great worms.
The proto-satha tried to resist, to fight back, but they were no match for the reptilian's technology and brutality. Beaten and broken, the proto-satha might have been forever doomed if their master's arrogance didn't court catastrophe. Encountering another sapient race they discovered, much to their regret, that they were hardly as naive as the proto-satha had been. A bloody war followed. Which became a brutal stalemate. The conflict dragged on and on, with casualties climbing higher and higher.
Tiring of this seemingly endless war, their masters began having their slaves fight for them. At first it was simply as cannon fodder. Yet as the campaigns ground on, the reptilian's slowly turned over more and more of their war machine to their slaves. Wrapping themselves in decadence, protection from the truth of how high a price their pride was charging.
IV. Avenger
In the midst of this hopelessness, a Messenger appeared among the slaves. Proclaiming that the last Great Worm was calling to them from beyond its grave. Calling them to punish the reptilians for their heinous crimes. Calling them to protect the Great Worm's children, wherever they might be, from the ravages of other befoulers. The Messenger was smuggled from fleet to fleet and legion to legion, gaining converts everywhere he went. And where the Messenger did not go? Its
disciples would.
A new religion was born among the wreckage and ruin. For a broken and brutalized people, the call of the Great Worm was like the sweetest honey. Giving them purpose and showing they were part of something greater. Only those who had cared for the great worms could be trusted with so sacred a task. The Followers' numbers grew but not all slaves felt the calling. Eventually the Messenger was betrayed to the reptilians.
The masters began a great purge, but feared weakening their defenders too much, or finally goading them into rebellion. The Messenger died, but its disciples carried its message onward, the Followers' ranks ever growing. More purges followed, each teaching them how to hide their faith more and more in the shadows. In hiding some of the faithful would inadvertently begin altering the message. Focusing more on one gospel or another.
The hidden communities became
sects. The beliefs of each, somewhat distinct from the Messenger's teachings. They openly battled their masters' enemy, while covertly preparing, and converting. Across the stars, the Followers' and their Sects waited, for a sign...
V. Crusader
That sign came when the reptilians' implacable foe. Finally became more, well, placable. Exhausted, they agreed to peace. The relieved reptilians finally felt safe enough to start disarming the slave fleets and legions. Word of this spread like wildfire and the Followers knew they might never have another chance. Spreading as rapidly as the warning, an uprising began. The sects turned their guns on their masters, and any slave who refused to join them.
Reptilian space dissolved into chaos as their slaves ran rampant, attacking anything and everything. The reptilians, and the slaves who remained loyal to them, fought hard. Yet they were vastly outnumbered. The reptilians started calling the Followers, "sathar," which meant "fanatic" or "zealot" in their tongue. The sects liked this slur and adopted it as their own.
Soon the reptilians were driven back to their homeworld. Once they were done with it, only a radioactive wasteland of craters remained. Yet instead of peace, the sects discovered themselves in another war. Their master's enemy sought to take advantage of a supposedly weakened foe. Instead, they found the "sathar" to be much more dangerous without a master's leash. Before long? Their world was also turned a radioactive husk.
As the Followers tried to reclaim the paradise of what had been. The disciples sent the sects across the stars. Where they found sapience? The sects studied it, and brought their findings back to the disciples. The disciples would study and debate the evidence, to determine if they were befoulers. If they were? The sects brought the wrath of the Great Worm down upon them. If they were not? The sects would protect them from the tainted or, rarely, even offer guidance.
Sometimes the sects found a race, or collection of races, strong enough to delay the disciples' judgement. For them? The sects remembered the hard lessons taught by the reptilians and first used the shadows to move within...
About the S'sessu
Not everyone chose to fight to the bitter end during the uprising. Some slaves saw the "writing on the wall," so to speak, and fled instead. Most failed, dying in deep space or on barely habitable worlds. A few, like the S'sessu, managed to survive. Alone, without ever accepting the call of the Great Worm. Yet they know what the sathar are, and go to great lengths to hide any ties to their fanatical kin.
Satharian Sects II: Society
I. Tribe
Despite its importance, the "Sect" is not the backbone of satharian society. The "Tribe" is. Extended families with dozens of members, most tribes live a
simple life on satharian worlds. Living together in large communal homes. They choose to survive at a nearly subsistence level. Herding, fishing, farming, hunting, much as the proto-satha had before the reptilians came. Stepping into a satharian village is like taking a time machine back thousands of years. The Followers believe that the simpler the life? The purer it is, in the Great Worm's eyes.
Another common trait of the tribes is an aversion to technology. Now they do make some concessions, especially when it comes to weapons and medicine. However, they are kept well out of sight until needed. The reptilians forced the proto-satha into a future that, in their hearts, they still want as little to do with as possible. So they spend their days caring for their homelands and their communities. Finding fulfillment in working with their tentacles, instead of machines.
Satharian children are born and raised within their tribe. Learning from the elders about their people, their faith, and their history. When they reach maturity, about a dozen years old, sathar undertake a pilgrimage to one of their world's monasteries. There they are tested, searching for what the Great Worm is calling on them to do. Usually, that calling is too crusade with that monasteries' sect. Years of training follow, before they are sent on to that sect's fleet or legion.
It is during this training that their caste is chosen and their life-tattoo, a record of their tribe, caste, sect, rank, and accomplishments, is begun. Once their calling is finished, often decades later, the sathar returns to its tribe. Now some sathar choose to join a different tribe. Normally happening if the sathar finds a lifemate, joining its mate's tribe instead. Great celebrations occurring when they return. Most then gladly shed the technological trappings of their service. Returning to lives of tribe and faith, passing on what they have learned to new generations.
Now some sathar never return to their tribes. It is said they still feel the call of the Great Worm. While for some this is true. For others? They are simply unwilling to cast aside the machine. They remain with their sect for their entire lives, a few even ending up as elders in the monasteries and helping new pilgrims to find their callings. Unlike those who return to the tribes, they continue to avoid mating. Since it is considered "impure" for a sathar to be born outside a tribe. Though tribes do accept cocoons from "strangers," and will raise them as their own.
It is not even uncommon for those who choose to stay too neuter and spay themselves. A solemn declaration of their belonging to the sect and ceremonially cutting ties to their birth tribe.
II. Sect
Though the tribes are the "backbone" of satharian society. The sects are its "muscle." It is the sects who protect the Great Worm's tribes from the foul, the alien. It is the sects that answer the Great Worm's call to crusade. It is the sects which build and maintain the machines that make the crusade possible. The sects are the ones who bring fear to the befouler and glory to the guided. Yet it is also the sects who watch each other, as well as the alien. They are responsible for purging not only the unclean alien, but the tainted sathar as well.
There are many different signs that another sathar, or even an entire sect, is becoming "tainted." However, only the disciples should interpret those signs. If there is evidence, it is to be brought to them. They have absolute authority over all sects. Though, in practice, that varies. Just as their templars have absolute authority over all sathar. Which, also, can vary. Still, the disciples are patient and deliberate, so it is not unheard of for some to take care of the issue themselves, instead of waiting overly long for their judgement.
The results of such impatience can often be quite messy... Especially when entire sects are involved. The disciples intervene only when the Great Worm has not already made its decision clear.
Today, there are dozens of Followers' sects. Yet there were, originally, hundreds. The trials and strain of centuries on crusade, has seen the weak (or impure) absorbed (or obliterated) by the rest. Each remaining sect now controls several fortress-like monasteries sprinkled across the home worlds. And beyond the satharian worlds? Each lays claim to vast stretches of space and up to dozens of systems. Searching for the tainted, harvesting, mining, and building their machines. Watching over the lesser races and even guiding a chosen few.
III. Disciple
The Messenger was not alone in proclaiming the Great Worm's calling. From its Followers came disciples. Ones widely recognized as especially wise and devout. They also went out and taught about the Great Worm. When the Followers' enemies had fallen, it was the disciples they turned to for guidance. It was the disciples who divined that the Great Worm wanted them to return to a simple life. And it was the disciples the sects turned to, when they could not be sure who was tainted and who was not.
On the birth-world there is a complex that makes the sects' fortress monasteries look like villages in comparison. It is the Great Temple of the Great Worm and where the disciples spend their time when they are not among the tribes. Spending their days and nights studying the gospels, communing with the Great Worm, and debating evidence brought before them. There is no limit to how few, or how many, disciples there may be at one time. If one is accepted by the eldest among them? Then that one is considered a disciple.
IV. Templar
Now the Great Temple is not the only temple in the satharian worlds. They are sprinkled across the homeworlds just like the sects' monasteries are, only far fewer in number. The few sathar who do not find their calling to crusade with the sects? Find it tending the temples and disciples instead. These templars' callings are usually shorter than for those in the sects, but more tend to still feel the Great Worm's call than with the sects.
Like with the sects, the disciples' templars believe their calling requires the machine. Though they go to much greater lengths to keep the machine out of sight, compared to the sects. Restricting their harvesting, mining, and building to uninhabited planets, moons, asteroids, and the like. Understandable, since the templars mostly remain within the satharian homeworlds. While the sects crusade beyond, searching for the foul and guarding or even guiding the lesser races. The templars remain behind. Watching over the tribes and protecting the disciples.
Satharian Sects III: Values
As the dralasites are thoughtful and philosophical. As the vrusk are hard-working and practical. The sathar also have traits that nearly all of them share to a great degree. In fact, they have three.
I. Belonging
Sathar spend their lives sure, convinced even, that they are part of something greater than themselves. Whether it is their tribe, their calling, their sect, or even their faith. Usually a combination of the previous, in fact. The "loner sathar" is pretty much a contradiction in terms to them. This sense of belonging helps them feel that everything they do has a greater purpose. Even if they may not know what that greater purpose is? They still have almost complete faith that they are playing their part in it.
II. Vigilance
The Great Worm calls on its Followers to be ever alert for signs of the unclean, the impure. No sathar is immune to becoming fouled. Not even the disciples themselves. Only through remaining ever watchful, vigilant, can they not only spot the taint in others, but guard themselves from it as well. Now because of the closeness found within the tribes and sects, such vigilance tends to be directed outward, instead of inward.
III. Conviction
Once the disciples have judged a sathar, a tribe, a sect, or even an entire race, as tainted? Most sathar will believe it with every fiber of their being. There is no doubt. There is no mercy. The strength of their convictions carried them through their race's darkest days. As their beliefs will carry them through whatever is to come.
However, what if the disciples have not judged? If the sathar, tribe, or sect, was so convinced that they felt no need to wait? Then the result can be very bloody indeed since the accused, and their allies, will believe in their innocence just as strongly as their accuser, and their allies, will believe in their guilt.
Satharian Sects IV: Troubles
With a civilization over a millennium old, the sathar have proven that they are survivors. Yet, like any nation, they have challenges facing them that are as much within as without.
I. Weird Science
Perhaps uniquely among the space-faring races, the sathar don't really want to be one. The sciences have never held any great appeal to them. Such fields are treated more with suspicion, than recognition or reverance. Even their reptilian masters noted that while their slaves were great technicians, they could fix almost anything if given enough time, they made terrible scientists.
This deficiency has cost the sects dearly over the centuries. While they have always managed to overcome or undermine their foes, before the cost became too great, in the past. That is hardly a guarantee that it will always be this way. Of course the sects are aware of this shortcoming and so always keep two pupils open for new technology. The sects have tried expanding their anemic scientist castes. However, such efforts are often seen as signs of taint, and tend to be judged poorly by the disciples.
II. Go West Young Worm...
Having faced resilient enemies before, the satharian sects were not very impressed with the collection of races in the space they were calling a "Frontier." Of course with multiple races involved, the disciples required far more evidence than usual to pass judgement. Even the sects were perplexed over how, overall, peacefully such a diverse collection was reaching outward. The disciples kept requesting more and more evidence, unable to reach consensus. The debate dragged on for years, then decades, and finally centuries.
Several sects tired of waiting and resolved to handle this Frontier themselves. The result was so disastrous that even the often cautious disciples were jolted into action. Declaring all four races, and any who aided them, as tainted in the eyes of the Great Worm. More sects lent their aid to those already facing this Frontier. When they were ready, the results were even worse the second time. Not only worse, but the four races were now being aided by several more.
It occurred to the more insightful sects and disciples that while the sathar had faced enemies as tactically strong as this "Frontier" before. They had never faced one as strategically deep. The battlefield stretched across hundreds of light years and the enemy had reliable interstellar communications technology that were used to great effect. Now, with even more sects being drawn to this Frontier, some disciples are debating whether their judgement was too hasty
A select few, quietly, even ponder that perhaps it was not the "Frontier" that the Great Worm was declaring tainted, but the sects themselves instead.
III. iCrusade
The sects found their purpose in the Messenger's call to crusade. For centuries it had been a divine mandate that not only justified their existence, but also gave them a valued place in satharian society. However the disciples' thinking, regarding the sects, has been gradually shifting. Does the Great Worm really want the crusade to be eternal? Did the Messenger really mean the entire universe?
In the early centuries, the tribes felt vulnerable and the disciples saw their best defense? Was a good offense. The sects performed above and beyond, as the disciples restored the birth-world and terraformed a few near it. The sects harnessed the machine with skill and precision, both within the satharian worlds and without. However, as the centuries passed by, the tribes frowned more and more on displays of the machine. Especially by the sects.
The disciples' templars, however, kept their machines hidden, or disguised. So the tribes felt more at ease around them. The templars began to be seen as the tribes' defenders, instead of just the disciples' servants. As the sects were seen more and more as just crusaders. Just aggressors. This shift in attitudes is becoming widespread enough that some tribes are even letting their young choose, whether they want to take their pilgrimage to a monastery? Or to a temple. This is threatening to choke off the sects' most precious resource, young sathar.
The more suspicious sects even whisper that while their scientist castes are considered suspicious of taint? The templars secretly expand theirs, with the disciples' blessing. Darker whispers tell that some sects are having those who choose to stay, after their calling would normally end, not sterilize themselves. That in sterile ships and stations, far beyond the homeworlds, nurseries are being built, and filled. Filled with those who will never know the belonging of a tribal hearth. Never feel the peace of a satharian world under their belly.
The darkest tales whisper that the sathar in those nurseries did not even come from cocoons. But crawled out from machines instead.
IV. To Heresy Or Not To Heresy
For the first few hundred years, after the uprising, there were hundreds of sects. Some did not even have a monastery to recruit from, using less conventional methods instead. The tribes they recruited from were taught about the Great Worm from their elders and the disciples. The sects, on the other hand, focus on a few gospels more than the rest. Which, depending on the gospels involved, can lead them down strange paths indeed.
Exposing young sathar to a different version of their faith was originally considered good for them. It showed the young that there was more than one way to worship the Great Worm. And with so many variations, even those who returned converted, had little impact on the Followers. However, as the weak sects were absorbed by the strong, not only did their variance from the orthodoxy become more and more distinct. The returning converted had a larger and larger impact on the Followers.
With more converted, of the same sects, among the tribes. They began finding converts within the tribes themselves. Alarming many tribes and the disciples. There are even rumors of the converted leaving, and forming their own tribes in remote parts of the homeworlds. Openly practicing and teaching their heresies beyond the monastery walls. Some believing that a new Messenger will come, and make the sects and their heresies the true faith instead.